I used to have a netbook (using Windows 7 Starter) and explorer would keep freezing up on me. It always happened when Internet explorer was on. I figured a wanted a more powerful computer anyway so I got a Phenom II 3.0Ghz X4 and 8G Ram with Windows 7 premium.

Then that computer froze several times when I was using internet explorer. Sometimes all I had on were a 2-3 IE windows. So I switched to firefox. And it still freezes.

When it freezes, I turn it off and turn it on again. When that happens and it gets back to the desktop screen, if I ask it to do anything of any substance (like opening firefox/IE, a Jpeg or a Word file) it freezes up again.

I don't have a great many startup programs. I use both Microsoft windows defender and Avast. What could be causing the freezes?

Since you are having the same problem with two computers and two browsers, I look to some program you have running on both that is not compatible with W7.

Run MISCONFIG and start eliminating programs that run at start up. There are also programs that you can run that look for incompatibilities. CCleaner is only mildly helpful in that regard. Glary's utilities are better.

I built myself a nice AMD system last year and have had trouble with lock ups occasionally. Seems browser related also, most often soon after switching back from playing a game, so I suspect it has something to do with the video card transitioning back to 2d. I am using a HD5850 and it can get pretty hot (~70 C) I try to remember to run HW monitor so I can watch the GPU temperature more closely. Updated catalyst drivers seemed to reduce the problem.

Its annoying as the system is all top quality components, XP almost never froze hard on me on numerous PCs.